Molly Goddard Tulle Dress £2,800.00
Styling by Tania Rat Patron
Three years ago I swopped my allegiance from Vogue and took up a subscription with Harpers Bazaar I have a collection of Vogue going back to 1986.
I have a vintage copy bought from ebay as far back as 1962, this is my most treasured original copy. This particular copy of Vogue features Twiggy's debut into fashion modelling as cover girl wearing an outfit she designed. It is valuable and highly collectable, safely stored in tissue paper.
In the 1970s the only access we had to fashion news was through glossy fashion magazines. This was the golden era of fashion journalism. The arrival of Blogging in 2010, then instagram influencers and now Tik Tok has changed this dominance and exclusive access to fashion news the publishing houses once enjoyed. Social media has allowed a generation of proactive, beautiful and smart people gain a voice that in the past would have been denied them.
It was turning the pages of Condenaste's monthly copies of Vogue that inspired me to become an Art Director / Producer and study Graphic design. I discovered that my all girls Grammer school had a collection of back copies of Vogue dating back to the 1960s, I remember a particular shoot by David Bailey with then super model Penelope Tree - Even better I got the opportunity through my mothers connections to babysit for fashion photographer David Bailey's PA, she told me some wonderful stories of the glamour and hard work involved in this world. Bailey of course was instrumental in revolutionising the look of Vogue in the 1960s with his sexy refections of style using his Roliflex camera.
You want to know the reason I defected from Vogue recently? - well it is complex but fundamentally it is because I am obsessed by the art of fashion photography Art Direction and the alchemy of creating beautiful imagery. Harpers Bazaar was always considered by me to be the poor relation to Vogue - it was when I was researching and developing a lecture on fashion photography for my Central Saint Martins students and looking for fashion content that made the clothes fascinating that I discovered Erik Madigan Heck's work with Bazaar. It all made sense when I saw that Leith Clark was the fashion editor. Her debut into publishing was Lula magazine.
I had become increasingly disillusioned with the editorial content offered under Alexandra Shulman in the last 5 years of her tenure at Vogue, I thought Edward Enniful was an inspired replacement, I truly rejoiced, here was a guy who would shake things up, keep the existing loyal customers and bring in new vibrant fashion relevant editorials. Yes well he did for a bit - the trouble was that I began to prefer Harpers Bazaar's consistently beautiful stories that frankly never disappointed month after month. The zeitgeist of the moment was addressed in a balanced and inclusive editorial content with no particular bias. Harpers Bazaar's editorial content was more relevant to me - I am a bit of a tree hugger - concerned about the world's polluting and unsustainable clothing mountain of Everest proportions, this was addressed to my satisfaction in Bazaar's editorial content.
It sadly comes as no surprise that Vogue house in Hanover square has been vacated and the new head quarter moved to further out of town. Hanover Square is a prestigious address and reflected the glamour of Vogue - but thats not to say that Vogue in East London will not add a cool vibe to the area.
Fashion is transient, style is timeless and to understand this is the key to everything in my humble opinion.
words Schelay McCarter - © images Harpers Bazaar
